A rare "Britcom" that didn't make
it stateside via PBS - despite audience familiarity with its
lead via the series RED DWARF - THE BRITTAS EMPIRE
follows Gordon Brittas (Chris Barrie, LARA CROFT: TOMB RAIDER),
the manager of the new Whitbury New Town Leisure Centre, who
manages to alienate (if not downright infuriate) his staff,
laborers, customers, and even his family - including "basket
case" wife Helen (Pippa Haywood, TV's MR. SELFRIDGE), who
is transformed into more of a basket case with her own quirks as
the series goes on - with well-intended advice and a general
obliviousness to its reception (usually because he does not
understand the cause of the physical attacks - including
assassination attempts - against him or others wind up being the
unintended targets). On the receiving end of his devastating ...
and also interceding between Brittas and the public are his
long-suffering staff including his manager level-headed Laura
(Julia St. John) and bumbling Colin (Michael Burns), neurotic
receptionists Carole (Harriet Thorpe, CALENDER GIRLS) -
who keeps her baby in her desk drawer - and Julie (Judy Flynn),
lovestruck trainer Linda (Jill Greenacre), as well as Tim
(Russell Porter) and Gavin (Tim Marriott) whose relationship is
obvious to everyone but Brittas (with Gavin being the first one
Brittas usually suspects whenever he suspects some "hanky panky"
going on with female staff or members in the centre).

Whereas Barrie's RED DWARF character let whatever small
amount of authority he was given go to his head out of a sense
of inferiority, Gordon Brittas is well-meaning and without
malice; yet he wreaks an incredible amount of havoc (usually
psychologically inadvertently leading others to the physical
mishaps). His own patience is thoroughly tested, and yet he
demonstrates a greater degree of patience than some of the
characters who have to put up with him. Over the course of fifty
episodes, there is quite a bit of variations on the same basic
scenarios - Brittas trying to whip things into shape before an
important visitor, Brittas driving the most pacifistic of
customers/guest speakers to violent rage, Brittas trying to curb
on-site hanky panky or suspected thievery, Brittas being totally
oblivious to serious attempts on his life, Helen becoming
increasingly unhinged, Carole's multiple pregnancies (and babies
getting lost in the centre), large animals or poison insects
wandering around loose in the building, electrical mishaps and
explosive catastrophes from which Brittas usually emerges
without a scratch - but the results are still hilarious and
rewarding.

Eureka's set is a
more affordable and slimmer packaging of their
2007 complete series set, both of which present each
of the seven series on its own dual-layer disc (the individual
series releases split the episodes and extras between two
single-layer discs). The picture quality is none-too-impressive,
but that is the fault of the early nineties video recording more
so than the adequate compression. The Dolby Digital 2.0 mono
tracks fare better (optional English SDH subtitles are only
included on the third, sixth, and seventh series making the
complete set a lost opportunity to rectify this).

All of the extras spread over the seven discs appear to
replicate those of the individual series releases going by
online specs; and they include two Christmas specials (1994 and
1996), TV interviews with lead Barrie, stills galleries, and
interactive quizzes and games (which seem very primitive today).